Social Media to scale up efforts against online abuse

Tech companies are finally waking up to address the issue of the dark side of the web and are reaching out to women’s groups, NGOs and communities in Africa, America, India, Europe and the Middle East to organise a fightback on their platforms against online abuse, hate speech, misogyny and stalking.

But in their attempt to promote a “counter-speech” movement to challenge the violent misogyny, racism, threats, and abuse that flood social media platforms have prompted some of the communities they are trying to empower to question whether they are ducking their own responsibilities.

Sarah Green, of the End Violence against Women coalition, says: “Any moves by social media companies to support, encourage and empower individuals and groups to resist and counter abuse is very welcome. But we can’t say that’s the whole answer – we wouldn’t say that harassment and assault of women in the street should simply be dealt with by victims fighting back. We need to keep reviewing whether there is an adequate legal and policing response and whether social media companies are doing enough through their own policies and practices towards perpetrators of abuse as well as victims.”

Whether it's Facebook, Google or Twitter, all are trying to engage with women’s groups across the globe to find out how they can better tackle online abuse. Facebook’s US-based head of global safety, Antigone Davis, has recently overseen a series of global round-table discussions with women’s groups in India, Africa, Europe and the Middle East involving more than 120 organisations and activists.

Davis says that all the people she spoke to shared a common desire to understand the tools and resources available to them to fully participate on the platforms and shut down abusers and harassers.

She said the evidence from the meetings was that social media was overwhelmingly positive for the women and girls, from helping them build small businesses to enabling them to form community groups to combat domestic violence. “When we were in India talking to women who use Facebook, it was heartwarming to hear these women saying that the best way to counter abuse they had found was to mobilise our supporters to come together online. That was something we were hearing from this community and this is something we know is happening and we are researching further.”

Facebook already has the tools in place to help counter hate speech, from blocking, to unfriending, to faster responses to reporting abuse and a ban on the non-consensual sharing of intimate images. “So it is about raising awareness globally about these tools,” she says. “That is what we need to do.”

Safety experts, however, believe that putting the onus on victims to fight back is not the real solution. What about their own efforts to counter abuse and intimidation on these platforms.

Twitter, Google, and Facebook have never revealed how many agents they employ to investigate reports of abuse; the scale and type of reports they receive; or the level of satisfaction of complainants.